Friday, June 15, 2012

If
you aren’t already using Google Analytics to track your website/blog
performance, you’re missing out on a great feedback system and it’s free. It
isn’t necessary to have a Blogger blog. It can be used on static websites
hosted on your own server, Wordpress, or some other platform. You will need a
Google account and then follow the directions in how to place the codes on your
site so that it can begin tracking the activity on your site.

I
use Google Analytics to get an idea of how many visitors I receive each month,
to track new first-time visitors vs returning visitors. It let’s me know the
percentage of people from the US, Canada and other countries, who is using what
browser platform to view my site, and what percentage of my readers are on
mobile platforms such as Verizon Android or iphones. Why is this important? It
helps me tailor my content, and to use gadget plug-ins that will work with
these features. I don’t want to use something that the majority of my readers’ software
won’t be compatible with and will prevent them from viewing my site.

Google
has implemented the Social
Plug-In Analytics. It will show you how many people visit your site from
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+. This eliminates the guess
work in how much of a difference your social media efforts make in your overall
platform. It can be great info for the Marketing Plan piece of your proposal. It isn’t
enough to have 8,000 Twitter followers and 2,500 likes on your Facebook page.
Those numbers are only a start—they give you “access” to people you wouldn’t
otherwise have. Now take it a step further, and learn the percentage of those
people who are actively engaged in following your posts and interacting with you.

Do
they take action and click onto your website/blog and read the whole post? Do
they now follow your blog? Did they like your content enough to further promote
it to their friends and family? You can know this by keeping up with how many +1
it on Google, shared it on Facebook, or retweeted it on Twitter. If this is
happening, you have Social Media spreading your news by “word of mouth
marketing” and that is what you want—other people promoting your work. You won’t
know this without some mechanism to track your efforts--and why not use a free, accurate system like Google Analytics?

This
will give you a “return on your investment” of time, types of posts, and
content that people are interested in sharing and seeing or hearing. Often,
what we “think” they are interested in is completely different than the “truth”.
I can get people to share an image of Bambi on Facebook much faster than I can
one of my devotional posts or an announcement about my books or events. Yet, on
Twitter, people will retweet one of my devotions or my book announcements easier
than on Facebook. It’s given me a chance to get to know my readers better on each individual social media site.

Here
is an image of traffic flow that Google Analytics will show you from your
Social Media sites. It will show you what percentage of “click thrus” come from
which social media site, which page they entered, and which pages they clicked
on next and when and where they dropped off from your site. This will also give you an idea of which content (blog posts) people are interested in so that you will be able to target your future posts to garner more interactions.

If
you want specific directions in how to implement the code on Blogger, click
here.

What
are your thoughts? Have you used Google Analytics? Did you know about the
ability to also track your Social Media actions? Would it be helpful in making decisions
of where best to spend your time?

Now people are inspired to visit various types of social site. Social media has moved from the domain of the public relatives and community teams, who instinctively understand what good looks like, into the trading agencies, who are despairing for statistical investigation to support the spends.

MEET THE HARTLINE AGENTS

Joyce Hart, Owner and principal agent

Joyce Hart, owner and principal agent of Hartline Literary Agency has been a literary agent for more than a decade. She was formerly the vice president of marketing of an inspirational publishing company and as the president of Hartline Marketing has nearly thirty-two years of successful experience marketing and promoting books. Joyce has been a pioneer in selling high-quality fiction to the inspirational market and has built an excellent rapport with leading inspirational publishers. A member of ACFW, and the National Association of Professional Women, Joyce is a graduate of Open Bible College, Des Moines, IA now merged with Eugene Bible College in Eugene, Oregon. Joyce is based at Hartline Literary's Pittsburgh headquarters.

Diana Flegal, Agent

Diana currently lives in Asheville NC. A Bible College major in Missions and Anthropology, Diana has been a medical missionary to Haiti, a women's speaker and bible study leader. One of her life's highlights has been teaching apologetics to high school students as preparatory for college. Avid reader and intuitive editor, Diana's represents nonfiction and well written fiction. She has a passion for getting great writers published.

Jim Hart, Agent

Jim Hart is looking for authors who can write unique and engaging fictional suspense, romance, women’s fiction, historical fiction and some sci-fi. Jim is also interested in non-fiction regarding church growth, Christian living, and self-help. Keep in mind that non-fiction topics require a certain level of credentials, experience and expertise. The author will need an appropriate platform to present a non-fiction proposal.

Currently Jim is not looking at children’s, young adult or Biblical fiction proposals.

He holds a degree in Production Journalism and worked for twenty years in direct mail advertising before taking a job with an urban social services agency, where he worked for twelve years. All during his professional career, Jim has served with the local church doing youth ministry and music/worship ministry. He is a credentialed minister with the Assemblies of God, and serves part-time as Worship Pastor in his local church in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Linda Glaz, Agent

Linda is an experienced editor, reviewer and writer, and for a couple of years was a final reader for Wild Rose Press, then for White Rose Publishing and she worked as an editorial assistant for Hartline Agent Terry Burns. She has judged for numerous contests including the Genesis for the American Christian Fiction Writers, as well as the Emily Award for the West Houston Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. She has been on the faculty for Faithwriters.com annual conference, Maranatha, and is slated for numerous others in 2013. Linda understands writers because she's a writer herself with 4 books releasing in 2013.linda@hartlineliterary.comhttp://lindaglaz.blogspot.com/

Andy Scheer, Agent

Andy has a wealth of experience as a publishing professional with over 18 years as the managing editor of Moody Magazine, 8 years as the managing editor for the Christian Writer’s Guild, and as a free-lance writer and editor. He is a frequent instructor at writing conferences around the country. A journalism graduate from Colorado State University, he also attended Denver Seminary. Andy is a consummate professional and will be a great addition to the Hartline team.